I like Larry Korb and he had a civil and good-natured debate over Iraq with Bill Kristol at the NRI conference in Washington last year, but this is pretty head-spinning. Korb was a co-author of this op-ed in the Washington Post making the case that Iraqis are ready for a U.S. withdrawal:

It is entirely possible that in the absence of a cumbersome and clumsy American occupation, Iraqis will make their own bargains and compacts, heading off the genocide that many seem to anticipate. Opponents of the war seem to have far more confidence in Iraqis’ abilities to manage their affairs than do war advocates. Moreover, a U.S. withdrawal would finally compel the region to claim Iraq, forcing the Saudis, Iranians, Jordanians and others to decide whether a civil war is in their interests. Faced with that stark reality, they may seek to mediate rather than inflame Iraq’s squabbles.

But this is Larry Korb on the NewsHour in January saying that the Iraqis emphatically aren’t ready:

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, again, you see these new offensives as, in your words, more of the same.
LAWRENCE KORB: In other words — yes, I mean, what`s going to happen is, you know, particularly in the north, in Diyala, they`ll go in. And, by the way, they`re supposed to turn over after our forces go in to the Iraqi security forces.
We have so little confidence in the Iraqi security forces we would not even let them know what we were doing, because we were afraid that they would tip off the operation. …
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, rather than debating that — and I know that is a subject that the two of you disagree on — you are seeing — we`re at a point now where U.S. forces are going to continue to be drawn down further. And I guess the next question is, are the Iraqi forces able to pick up the slack there?
LAWRENCE KORB: I don`t think so. I mean, not only were we afraid to tell them about this operation, you actually had Iraqi security forces kill an American soldier in the last week.Listen, it`s not a question of training the Iraqis. It`s really a question of motivation. Are they motivated to support the central government?These Sunni tribes, we could have had this arrangement with them two years ago. We turned it down because they wouldn`t pledge loyalty to the central government. We took it this time, even though they didn`t pledge loyalty. We`re creating a long-term problem for that government, and possibly ourselves.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So you`re saying the Iraqis are not prepared to pick up the slack? LAWRENCE KORB: The Iraqis are not prepared. …